Bangkok baby!!!

Mandy: 8th October 2014

Having landed safely we excitedly stepped out of the airport on to a train to Phaya Thai. The train track was elevated so we had a good view of the nice and not so nice houses and shacks along the route.

We left the station and walked down on to the streets of Bangkok (smile) and immediately felt the excitement of being on a different continent once again. It was humid and the sights and smells were wonderful. We walked along with our backpacks (front and back) past the hawker food stalls and felt happy. Nothing can phase us I thought. We had been to Asia before, albeit not Thailand, so we knew that it was a ‘well trodden route’ as Glen keeps reminding me if I ever get twitchy…. Mmm well trodden route?

We walked along side the solid traffic towards a loud beeping noise which turned out to be the sound of a railway crossing. As we got nearer we could see a train and passengers hurrying along towards it….. to ensure it didn’t go without them there was a chubby black African man in a uniform making urgent noises with a pea whistle. When we got up close to him we could see that there was no pea… there was no whistle! He had been making the amazingly loud and melodic noise with his mouth! He could see/understand my amazement and smiled at us with pride, shoulders back and continued to make the noise a little more enthusiastically, bless him. His uniform stretched across his ample belly, buttons straining with the pressure, you’d think they would give the poor guy a new uniform seeing as he supplied his own instrument! Wish I could have taken a photo but we were laden down with backpacks and really had to concentrate on getting to our hotel before starting to take our holiday snaps.

The first couple of taxis we spoke to did not want to take us to the hotel. Couldn’t really understand why, oh well no problem, we walked on further…eventually Glen peered into the car of a young cab driver and he said ‘yes’…….I say ‘yes’ he actually held THREE fingers up and said ONE Hundred lol! So negotiations were under way…… I thought, we got in and off we went, I say off… we were in sold traffic, we didn’t move! and we began to wonder if it would be quicker to just walk especially as the driver kept pointing around the next corner. Maybe the hotel was just around the corner…it’s happened before in KL! As we slowly made out way along the streets Glen kept asking the driver whether he knew where the hotel was and he was looking more and more like he didn’t! He kept saying OK and trying to ring the number that Glen had written down along side the address of our hotel. Glen noticed that his fuel tank was showing empty and the clutch wasn’t working every time! I wasn’t bothered we were on the ground not in the sky and we were in no hurry! After a while our young driver pulled over and pointed to a taxi in front of us and gestured for us to get out of the taxi! (Chuckle) we should have been worried or annoyed but it was just part of the experience…and it was free! It took a while to find someone to actually agree to take us in their taxi but eventually a lovely gentle Thai gentleman took us confidently but silently towards where we assumed was our hotel. Glen sat in the front with him and after a while said he had brain freeze from the savage air-con (chuckle) happy days.

As I sit here now thinking about it, maybe there is a young cab driver somewhere in Bangkok writing his own blog telling of the time when two middle aged British back packers jumped into his taxi and hi-jacked his cab. (Smile) even though he had put TWO fingers up at them! (Lol!)

The hotel was perfect, …..

we dropped off our backpacks and made our way towards a bar. The atmosphere was good and after a 29 hour journey from our digs (wink) in Bristol to the Diamond House Hotel here, the first large Singha (for Glen) and a small Chang (for me) went down a treat….and straight to my head! We walked further on and ate in a ‘spit and sawdust’ (not sure what the Thai equivalent description would be) place and had an excellent Pad Thai. We sat next to a young Irish guy called Shane who was traveling through Asia alone. He was a great guy, not that we have ever met a bad Irish person having said that.

Oh and just to make sure we knew that we were in Bangkok at the end of the rainy season there was a torrential downpour (which we welcomed seeing as it was so humid)

Off for a comfy nights sleep before we explore tomorrow